Philip Johnston has been with the Daily Telegraph for more than 20 years. He is currently assistant editor and leader writer and was previously home affairs editor and chief political correspondent.

There are 'more potholes than daffodils' this spring – but whose fault is that?

More than 15 years ago, this newspaper conducted an unusual search – to find the Pothole of the Year. Readers were invited to nominate the worst-maintained, most pockmarked roads in the land. This might sound like a bit of fun but it was a serious exercise inspired by the many complaints from readers about potholes damaging vehicles and even putting lives in danger

In 1998, the roads had noticeably deteriorated over the preceding decade. Councils said they did not have the money for their proper upkeep. Here we are 15 years on and the same old story is being told. The Asphalt Industry Alliance, which represents companies producing materials needed for highway repair, says one in five roads have potholes.

As Edmund King, president of the AA, has said, there are more potholes around this spring than daffodils. Of course the state of the roads is partly a function of the weather. But it is also the result of a failure to look after the highways in the good times when local authorities appeared to have plenty of money to spend on hundreds of thousands of non-jobs.

A pothole is essentially the symptom of long-term poor road maintenance. When local government had spare roads cash, they chose to spend it on speed humps and other traffic calming measures rather than on the resurfacing that would have stopped the potholes developing in the first place.

Far from being an early sign that a road needs repair, the appearance of a pothole is evidence that the maintenance system has already failed. It means that earlier warnings have been ignored or that the council has opted for emergency capping operations that are not only a waste of time and money but liable to make matters worse. The problem is aggravated in winter by freezing and thawing which is why so many appear now.

Money for local roads comes from the council tax and central grants. In theory, motorists pay for the upkeep of the highways through Vehicle Excise Duty and the tax on petrol. When vehicle licences were introduced in 1909 it was specifically to collect revenues for the roads; but as with the National Insurance Fund, ostensibly set up to pay for pensions and welfare, road taxes became just another way of raising money for general expenditure. It stopped being called the Road Fund Licence in 1935.

Councils are legally obliged to keep the roads in good condition. The 1980 Highway Act states that every authority is "under a duty to maintain the highway". But for those who want to get compensation for their wrecked chassis or damaged tyres getting compensation is not easy. Section 58 of the Act concedes that, in any individual case, it is a defence for an authority to prove that it had taken reasonable care to ensure the highway was not dangerous.

A Law Lords ruling also said that local authorities are only liable for accidents caused by their failure to maintain properly the roads within their area if "it would in the circumstances have been irrational not to have exercised the power, so that there was in effect a public duty to act". The Law Lords also ruled that there must also be "exceptional grounds for holding that the policy of (the 1980 Act) requires compensation to be paid".